Middle C and the Bass

[user2]

@Barney, What say ye about poplar (for a bass)?

[Barney]

I’m joking @user2 none of this stuff really matters. Pick whatever bass you like the look of. Practice every day, play and have fun.

A $99 Guitar Is All You Need

[howard]

The problem with making fun of TalkBass is that first you have to look at TalkBass.

Also it’s too easy.

[sshoihet]

@Barney

But if your little AI friend would have consulted the oracle i.e Embellisher they would realize it’s missing the fundamentals or low mids.

ChatGTP is really good at giving answers that seem like they should be correct but are in fact not It’s like FEA and CFD: you need to have an idea of what the answer should be before it gives you the answer

Later™ i might post a thread in the lounge showing how it repeatedly gets some simple tasks wrong. It also constantly annoys me with it’s lectures and “woke” BS

[Celticstar]

Another topic driven way off the rails

[DaveT]

Pickup screws are closer than they appear.

@Barney

Also

[james.davis.personal]

I think some of the confusion here may come from the MIDI.

• MIDI’s approach:

MIDI defines note numbers, with note number 60 corresponding to middle C. The octave designation (C3, C4, etc.) is separate and can vary.

• Common MIDI convention:

While MIDI itself doesn’t mandate it, many MIDI devices and software use C3 as the designation for middle C

Ableton Live for example uses C3 in its programming and layout. FL Studio I believe is geared to C5. So this is entirely dependent on the manufacturer and their particular adaptation/adoption of MIDI.
Generally my personal experience with computer audio is that C3 is the most common.

While MIDI itself doesn’t definitively designate a specific octave for middle C, it is most commonly represented as C3 in MIDI notation. However, it’s important to note that middle C can also be referred to as C4 in other contexts, like scientific pitch notation, and even C5 in some digital audio workstations (DAWs).

Scientific approach:

Middle C (C4), a fundamental reference note in music, is located near the center of a standard 88-key piano. It’s the fourth C key from the left, or the 24th white key. Its frequency is approximately 261.6 Hz.

This corresponds with the 17th fret on the bass G string.

[howard]

In MIDI there’s two primary conventions, the original Yamaha at C3 and everyone else (including modern Yamaha) at C4 (i.e. same as a piano). Both are legit as MIDI was invented by Yamaha, Roland, Sequential, Korg and Kawai as a consortium.

But MIDI is kind of meaningless to this discussion as Middle C is unambiguously the fourth octave C on an 88-key piano, at (as you note) 261.6 Hz, the 17th fret on the G string on a bass. For the original poster and the books he was looking at, the confusion is explained in the first several posts in the topic.

People often forget (or don’t know) that bass guitar music notation is an octave transposed and is notated an octave higher than it actually is, so you see this kind of mistake of being an octave off made all the time.

[fennario]

@howard

People often forget (or don’t know) that bass guitar music notation is an octave transposed and is notated an octave higher than it actually is, so you see this kind of mistake of being an octave off made all the time.

It helps when the 8vb notation is used to make this explicit , but I don’t always see that. Or pay attention, LOL.